One night many years ago, a shepherd named Benjamin was keeping watch over his flock. It was a night that began like every other. Little did he know that this night would change his life forever.
The sky was unusually clear that evening. Benjamin never grew tired of looking at the night sky. Sometimes when he couldn’t sleep, he would try to count the stars. He had heard of some people counting sheep, but he did enough of that during the day. As Benjamin gazed up at the scene in the sky, he remembered the words of David: “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?”2 Whenever Benjamin admired the heavens, he became convinced that there must be a God out there somewhere—a God who created all things. “Could it be that the same God who created the stars really cares about human beings?” Benjamin wondered. “Could it be that God really cares about… shepherds?”
Benjamin took a seat by the fire. The sheep were down for the night. The hill they had chosen to spend the night on looked down upon Bethlehem. It was cold, but peaceful—except for the sound of another shepherd snoring. Benjamin needed to stay alert in case a lion or wolf was lurking in the distance. His rod and his staff were always close beside him. He even carried a slingshot with five smooth stones just like David. King David—he was Benjamin’s hero…not so much because David was a great king, but because he had once been a lowly shepherd too. He often thought of the words of one of the psalms: “He chose David his servant and took him from the sheep pens; from tending the sheep he brought him to be the shepherd of his people Jacob.”2
Perhaps you don’t know that shepherds didn’t have the best of reputations in Benjamin’s day. People thought shepherds were kind of strange. After all, who in their right mind would live out in the open all year long, in all kinds of weather, wandering from place to place but never really getting anywhere? No home. No family. No roots. Just sheep all day, all night, all year. Sometimes Benjamin thought they might be right; maybe shepherds were a little strange. But Benjamin didn’t mind. This was the life for him. He enjoyed being out in the open, nobody bothering him, no one telling him what to do or where to go.
Of course, sheep aren’t the most noble of beasts—not like the Arabian stallions Benjamin would sometimes see on the road. Sheep can’t pull their own weight like oxen. They’re not the smartest of creatures either. They’re always wandering off, getting lost and in trouble. Benjamin once saw a whole flock of sheep follow each other right off the edge of a cliff. Sheep will even eat themselves sick if you let them stay in one place too long. They can be ornery creatures too when they don’t want to do something.
The thing about sheep is they need a shepherd. As long as they have a shepherd to lead them and protect them, they’re fine. And that’s what Benjamin did. It might seem kind of strange to some people, but Benjamin really cared about his sheep. At the end of every day, he would count them to make sure not one of them was missing. He knew them by name, every one of them.
Benjamin often thought about the words of Isaiah: “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way.”3 He understood what the prophet meant. People really are a lot like sheep—always wandering off, following each other, getting into trouble. Sometimes Benjamin felt like a sheep. Sometimes he wondered what it would be like to have someone watching over him the way he watched over his sheep.
Actually, Benjamin was more comfortable around sheep than people. He had to go into town once in a while to pick up supplies and deliver some sheep, but he never stay there too long. It was always so noisy and crowded. He didn’t fit in there. And the townsfolk, they stayed clear of him too.
Shepherds were often accused of being thieves. Benjamin knew how it worked. A farmer would go to his barn one morning, find a couple of tools missing, and right away he would blame it on the shepherds. “Shepherds came through town last night. They stole my tools!” “They have to blame someone,” Benjamin thought. “It might as well be us.” It didn’t really bother him.
But there was one thing that did bother him. People said shepherds were unclean—not in a regular way, in the religious way, like they were unacceptable. His people, the Jews, had all kinds of laws—laws about what they could wear and what they could eat and how they could kill it and how they could cook it and special laws about the Sabbath and washing your hands three times a day.
“How do they expect shepherds to keep those kinds of laws?” Benjamin would often complain. Shepherds ate whatever they could get their hands on. They couldn’t be too particular about how they killed or cooked it. Their hands were always dirty. The Sabbath? The days were all the same out there. What were they supposed to do? Leave their sheep so they could go down to the temple? They wouldn’t be welcomed even if they did.
Benjamin remembered what had happened on one of his first trip to Jerusalem as a shepherd. It was his turn to deliver the sheep to the temple. You see, his sheep were for the temple. They used them there for sacrifices. That was why he had to take such good care of them—make sure they were healthy, no cuts or bruises. As I said before, Benjamin didn’t like going to town, especially a big city like Jerusalem, but he was kind of looking forward to seeing to the temple. He hadn’t been there since he was a boy. He was curious about what was inside.
As he reached the temple, one of the priests met him outside. He didn’t even really look at Benjamin and didn’t say a word to him. He just counted the sheep, checked them all over, and then gave him a pouch with some money and turned to go. Benjamin asked, “Sir, would it be alright if I accompanied my sheep into the temple?” The priest turned and looked at Benjamin. His clothes and hands were dirty. The priest gave him a look of disgust. He didn’t say a word. He just shook his head and walked away. Benjamin wasn’t good enough for the temple. His animals could go in, but Benjamin wasn’t welcome.
“Hey, what about David?” Benjamin called to him. “He was a shepherd too, you know.” That’s what Benjamin and the other shepherds would always say when people insulted them. “Remember David. He was a shepherd.”
Benjamin was still looking at the stars. He remembered the words of the psalmist: “He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.”4 He thought for a moment: “Does the God who names every star know my name? Does he care about me? Or am I unimportant to Him like I was to that priest?”
At that moment, Benjamin noticed something. He didn’t know exactly what it was, but it was something in the sky. It was moving. He thought maybe he was just dreaming, so he got up and started walking around. But it was still there. The air was moving like it was alive. It felt like a storm was brewing, but there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.
Benjamin picked up his staff and moved a little closer to where the other shepherds were sleeping. All of a sudden, the sheep woke up, like they had been spooked by something. Of course, the sound of the sheep startled the sleeping shepherds. They knew right away that something was going on. They rubbed their eyes trying to see what it was, but there was nothing to see, just the air moving around them, kind of like a whirlwind, picking up dust. Then there was a glow in the air, like a swirling shaft of light coming out of the sky and falling on a patch of ground right in front of them. Then the wind got stronger and the light got brighter. Dirt was flying around them. Benjamin got shaky on his feet.
The next thing Benjamin knew, he was down on his knees in front of the light. And then right before his eyes it began to take shape. Gradually it took the shape of a man—a man more perfect than any Benjamin had ever seen. “This has to be an angel,” he thought. Benjamin and the others were terrified.
The man angel said: “Do not be afraid.” That was easy for him to say. “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”5 Benjamin didn’t know what to do. He was frozen.
Then suddenly with the angel there appeared a crowd of angels filling up the whole sky—too many to count. They began to sing—quietly at first and then louder. “Glory to God. Glory to God. Glory to God in the highest.” It was the sweetest, strongest music Benjamin had ever heard. He didn’t want the music to end. He wanted it to go on and on. He often tried to sing the angels’ song afterward, but it was like music from another place, not for this earth.
“A Savior has been born to you.” Benjamin wondered, “Had the time arrived for the coming of Messiah?” He may have been only a lowly shepherd, but he knew the prophecies concerning the promised Deliverer. “Are these angels telling us that Messiah has come?” Instantly, the angels vanished. The air was quiet. The night was dark. But the sheep were still going crazy, running all over the place.
When the shepherds finished herding the sheep together, Benjamin knew what they had to do. He announced to the others, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”6 After what they had just experienced, none of them wanted to stay in the hills by themselves that night. Of course, this meant they had to take the sheep with them. So they kicked their fuzzy little tails all the way down to Bethlehem. It was the middle of the night, but the town was still bustling. A census ordered by Caesar was in full swing, which meant that people were in town from all over Palestine. Some were trying to find food to eat; others were trying to find a place to stay. People were sleeping in the streets. They started asking around if anyone knew anything about what the angel had told them, but no one seemed to know anything. Benjamin thought to himself, “Are we the only ones who know?”
Eventually, on the edge of town, they found a little stall. It was a cave cut into the rock. There was straw on the ground, and some animals were hiding in the shadows. Sure enough, there was a man and a woman and a little baby wrapped in cloths. They had laid him in a feeding trough because they had no bed for him. Benjamin just stopped and wondered. “Is this the right place? God’s Messiah born in a place like this? Where is everybody? Where are the angels and the priests?”
The shepherds told the couple their story. It sounded kind of crazy to Benjamin as he was telling it, but they believed it—almost as if they took comfort in their story. And then the man invited them to come in and see the child for themselves. He told them the boy’s name, “His name is Jesus, the one who saves.” That’s what the angel had said: “A Savior.”
Now Benjamin didn’t know much about babies. All he knew was he looked like an ordinary baby to him. But kneeling down next to that manger, he felt closer to God than he had ever felt before, even more than when he was out under the stars. You see, when Benjamin was in the fields at night, he knew God was out there somewhere. But by the manger it was like God was near, like God was with him, like God was in that child.
They didn’t stay long. They figured the couple needed some time to themselves. And they needed to get the sheep out of town and back up to the hills. But on their way out of town they tried to tell everybody all incredible stuff they had seen and heard. The people of Bethlehem were all pretty amazed about the news, but Benjamin didn’t think any of them went to see the baby for themselves. As I said earlier, people didn’t think too highly of shepherds. They probably thought Benjamin was crazy.
Walking back up into the hills, Benjamin and the others were singing and talking and carrying on. One of the guys said, “I bet those priests in the temple were never visited by angels!” “Yeah, if they were,” Benjamin replied, “they wouldn’t let them in the temple cause they weren’t dressed properly!” They laughed.
As Benjamin led a wayward sheep back to the herd, he remembered the rest of Isaiah’s prophecy: “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” “The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” “What does that mean?” Benjamin wondered. There was so much he didn’t understand. He had no idea that the baby named Jesus would one day say, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”7 He never imagined that someone would one day describe the boy in the manger as “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”8
Benjamin stopped walking. “Why were we—lowly shepherds—the first to be given the news?” Instantly, he thought of the words of David: “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him?”
Benjamin fell to his knees and praised the God of heaven. Glory to God in the highest! Glory to God who cares for the lowest…even shepherds!
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To really understand Christmas, we must learn the lessons God is teaching us through the shepherds’ story.
To really understand Christmas…
1. We must acknowledge our “SHEEPINESS.”
The Bible says that all of us are like sheep.
• We have GONE ASTRAY.
We are all wayward. We all have sinned. “We all, like sheep, have gone astray….” (Isaiah 53:6).
• We are HELPLESS on our own.
2. We must understand that God doesn’t NEED US…but we NEED HIM.
We need a shepherd. If God doesn’t need us, why has He chosen to become a shepherd to His people? Because of His compassion. Matthew 9:35 says, “When [Jesus] saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matt. 9:36).
3. We must realize that God blesses only the HUMBLE.
Why did the angel appear to only the shepherds on the night of Christ’s birth? Because God loves the lowly. God “chose the lowly things of this world…so that no one may boast before him” (1 Corinthians 1:28-29).
God is not impressed with man’s accomplishments or status. We read in Psalm 138:6: “Though the LORD is on high, he looks upon the lowly, but the proud he knows from afar.”
Listen to Isaiah 57:15: “This is what the high and lofty One says—he who lives forever, whose name is holy; “I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.”
Jesus said, “For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted” (Matthew 23:12). If you humble yourself, if you confess to God that you are but a sheep, He will exalt you. He will give you the gift of eternal life and bless you. “The LORD takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with salvation” (Psalm 149:4).
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Benjamin was filled with wonder and amazement. God had sent angels to them, a bunch of shepherds, to announce the Savior had arrived. It seemed to Benjamin like maybe God doesn’t care about what you’re wearing or if you smell kind of funny, if you’re willing to listen and believe.
There was something else too. The angel had said. “A Savior has been born to you.” To you. Benjamin knew the Savior was for everyone, but for some reason it seemed as though the angel could see that he needed a Savior.
Benjamin thought to himself: “David said that the Lord was his shepherd.” Benjamin didn’t want to feel like a lost sheep any longer. He prayed, “God, would you be my shepherd? Would you save me? And would you lead me? If you do, I’ll follow you. I will.”
One of Benjamin’s favorite psalms of David was one he used to sing as a child. As he grew older, he wondered if it really was true. Now he knew it was.
O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord.
You hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.9
Benjamin liked to add, “They would outnumber even the stars in the sky.”
Benjamin never grew tired of looking at the night sky. Because every time he did, when he looked up at the sky and thought about God, he knew that He cared about humble shepherds like him. And he always remembered that night when God, who made the stars, came down to visit him.
1 Psalm 8:3-4
2 Psalm 78:70
3 Isaiah 53:6
4 Psalm 147:4
5 Luke 2:10-12
6 Luke 2:15
7 John 10:11
8 John 1:29
9 Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18
Third Sunday of Advent
The Shepherds’ Candle
As we light the Shepherds’ Candle on the third Sunday of Advent, we celebrate anew God becoming a man and living among us. May those who seek Him find Him; may those who see Him make His message known; and may those who hear it marvel at the news.
Scripture: Luke 2:15-20
CHRISTMAS ACCORDING TO THE SHEPHERDS
To really understand Christmas…
1. We must acknowledge our ____________________.
• We have ____________________.
• We are ____________________ on our own.
2. We must understand that God doesn’t _______________ … but we _______________.
“When [Jesus] saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36).
3. We must realize that God blesses only the ________________.
“This is what the high and lofty One says—he who lives forever, whose name is holy; ‘I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite’” (Isaiah 57:15).
“Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted” (Matthew 23:12).
“The LORD takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with salvation” (Psalm 149:4).
